Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /182 of 299

Geometry Difficulty 6.7 National Olympiad Prove it Iran

In the triangle ABCABC, the angle A\angle A is obtuse. Points EE and FF are the feet of altitudes from BB and CC, respectively. Tangents to the circumcircle of ABCABC at BB and CC intersect the line EFEF at points KK and LL, respectively. Let CLB=135\angle CLB = 135^\circ. Point RR lies on the segment BKBK such that KR=KLKR = KL. Point SS lies on the line BKBK such that KK is between BB and SS and BLS=135\angle BLS = 135^\circ. Prove that the circle with the diameter RSRS is tangent to the circumcircle of ABCABC.

Solution

Since BLC=135=BLS\angle BLC = 135^\circ = \angle BLS we have CLS=90\angle CLS = 90^\circ. We shall provide and prove several lemmas.

Lemma 1. Let PP be the intersection of the lines LS,BCLS, BC then PRB=90\angle PRB = 90^\circ
Proof. Since the line LCLC is tangent to the circumcircle ABCABC
LCE=B=LEC \angle LCE = \angle B = \angle LEC
Therefore LC=LELC = LE. Similarly KB=KFKB = KF and LF=BRLF = BR. Let XX be a point on the ray CLCL such that LF=LXLF = LX such that LL is between X,CX, C.
LELF=LCLX LE \cdot LF = LC \cdot LX
hence EXFCEXFC is cyclic and BXC=90\angle BXC = 90^\circ. Then
PCPB=LCLX;LX=LF=BR;LCP=A90=RBP \frac{PC}{PB} = \frac{LC}{LX}; \\ LX = LF = BR; \\ \angle LCP = \angle A - 90^\circ = \angle RBP
Thus the triangles LCP,RBPLCP, RBP are similar and RBP=90\angle RBP = 90^\circ. □

Let QQ be a point on line BKBK such that BPQ=90\angle BPQ = 90^\circ and TT be the second intersection of circumcircles PLC,PQBPLC, PQB. It follows that

Lemma 2. Point TT lies on the circumcircle ABCABC
PTC=PLC=90PTB=PQB=A90CTB=PLC+PTB=A \begin{align*} \angle PTC &= \angle PLC = 90^\circ \\ \angle PTB &= \angle PQB = \angle A - 90^\circ \\ \angle CTB &= \angle PLC + \angle PTB = A \end{align*}

Note that LTP=TCP=TBS\angle LTP = \angle TCP = \angle TBS, hence SLTBSLTB is cyclic.
Now by our second lemma: RPB=SPC\angle RPB = \angle SPC and since QPB=90QPB = 90^\circ, we would have (BQ;RS)=1(BQ; RS) = -1, further QTB=90QTB = 90^\circ therefore TQTQ bisects RTS\angle RTS.
Since SLTBSLTB is cyclic STB=SLB=135\angle STB = \angle SLB = 135^\circ. Now it is easy to find that BTR=RTQ=QTS=45\angle BTR = \angle RTQ = \angle QTS = 45^\circ thus the point TT lies on the circle with the diameter RSRS.

Lemma 3. Circumcircle RTSRTS is tangent to circumcircle BTCBTC
Proof. Let MM be the midpoint of segment BQBQ.
Since (BQ;RS)=1(BQ; RS) = -1 we have
MRMS=MB2=MQ2=MT2. MR \cdot MS = MB^2 = MQ^2 = MT^2.
This concludes our proof.

Figure 1

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.